July

The 14th Istanbul Biennial (5 September-1 November 2015), organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, will be drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev with a number of alliances. She will seek the artistic advice of Cevdet Erek, the intellectual rigor of Griselda Pollock, the sensitivity of Pierre Huyghe, the curatorial imagination of Chus Martinez, the mindfulness of Marcos Lutyens, the acute gaze of Füsun Onur, the political philosophies of Anna Boghiguian, the youthful enthusiasm of Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, the wise uncertainties of William Kentridge and manifold qualities and agencies to come as the process develops.

Christov-Bakargiev stated,“while thanking the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and its advisory board for entrusting me with the preparations of the forthcoming biennial, I take this opportunity to pay my condolences to the miners and their families who are suffering for the deaths in Soma last week. It is sad to announce an exhibition at such a time, and yet with and through art, we mourn, commemorate, denounce, try to heal, and we commit ourselves to the possibility of joy and vitality, leaping from form to life.”

According to Christov-Bakargiev, “the 14th Istanbul Biennial will embark looking for where to draw the line, to withdraw, to draw upon, and to draw out. It will do so offshore, on the flat surfaces with our fingertips but also in the depths, underwater, before the enfolded encoding unfolds.”

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is an author, an organizer of events and exhibitions, and a researcher of artistic practices, the histories of art and the politics of aesthetics. She is the Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University (2013-15). She received the Leverhulme Professorship from the University of Leeds for 2014. In 2013, she was the Menschel Visiting Professor in Art at The Cooper Union, New York, as well as the Pernod Ricard Visiting Professor in the philosophy of art and naturecultures at the Goethe - Universität Frankfurt am Main / Institut für Philosophie She has lectured widely on the relationship between the arts and the sciences, including most recently at Harvard University (2014). From 2009 to 2012, she was the artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13) which took place in 2012 in Kassel, Germany as well as in Kabul, Afghanistan; Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt; and Banff, Canada. Previously, Christov-Bakargiev was the artistic director of the 16th Biennale of Sydney (Revolutions-Forms That Turn, 2008) and chief curator at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (2002-8, interim director in 2009). She was senior curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a MoMA affiliate in New York, from 1999 to 2001. Other group exhibitions she has organized include The Moderns, Turin (2003), Faces in the Crowd, London and Turin (2004), Citta’ Natura (1997), and Molteplici Culture (1992). Her books include William Kentridge (1998), Arte Povera (1999), and for dOCUMENTA (13) the 100 Notes-100 Thoughts series as well as The Logbook and The Book of Books (2011-12).

Moving Image, founded in 2011, is an art fair dedicated to video art and experimental film. Moving Image Istanbul is the first in a series of new locations for the flagship fairs in New York and London, designed to bring video art to a wider audience and help participating galleries explore emerging markets around the globe. Taking place in the Kuleli Building of the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul, September 25-28, 2014 the fair will run alongside another new high end art fair in town - ArtInternational.

Moving Image co-founders Murat Orozobekov and Edward Winkleman explained, “With this expansion to the very exciting and burgeoning art market in Istanbul, the gateway between Europe and the Middle East, Moving Image seeks to broaden the international scope of its mission to connect more of the collectors, curators, and dealers supporting contemporary artists working in moving-image-based media.”

Kathleen Forde, Artistic Director of Borusan Contemporary Istanbul and a member of the Moving Image Curatorial Advisory Committee, elaborated on the choice of Istanbul, "As a longtime fan and advisor for the Moving Image Art Fair in New York, I am thrilled to hear that it will be launched in Istanbul this year. The Istanbul art scene has had a definitive international boom in recent years which appears only to be continuing to gain momentum. Moving Image has always been forward thinking across the board from concept, to timing, to location and of course in the work it presents ...so it is in line with their progressive paradigms to be coming to Istanbul at this time. Perfect timing, as always! I am really looking forward to seeing the fair in this special context."

Highlights of the 2014 Istanbul fair include several world premieres, including videos by Şener Özmen (PİLOT Gallery, Istanbul); Jonathan Monaghan (Curator's Office, Washington DC); Shaun Gladwell (Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City); and Nancy Atakan & Volkan Aslan (5533, Istanbul). Single-channel videos at the fair include works by Nino Cais (Central Galeria de Arte, Sao Paulo); Chen Tianzhuo (Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai), and Mounir Fatmi (Galerie Analix Forever, Paris). Among the historical films in the fair are works by David Wojnarowicz (P•P•O•W, New York) and Leslie Thornton (Winkleman Gallery, New York). Several large installations include works by Wolfgang Staehle (Postmasters, New York); Hans Op de Beeck (Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York); Basim Magdy (artSümer, Istanbul); and Sue de Beer (Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York).

Among the special events sponsored by Moving Image Istanbul are "Bring Your own Beamer" (BYOB) at Pera Museum, a one-night exhibition/performance by unrepresented, emerging Turkish film and video artists who will take over the fifth floor gallery hall of Pera Musuem in an improvised installation. Curated by Fatma Çolakoğlu and Ulya Soley, BYOB at Pera Museum runs 7-10pm, Saturday, 27 September, 2014. Also Mari Spirito, Founding Director of Protocinema, will host a screening and conversation with emerging artist Atalay Yavuz, who works with readily available materials. This events will take place at Moving Image on Saturday, 27 September, 4-5.30pm.

On 5 June 2014, Turkey inaugurated its debut exhibition, Places of Memory, at its long-term pavilion at Arsenale, one of the two main venues of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia. On the initiation of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and with the contribution of 21 supporters, Turkey obtains a long-term venue, from 2014 to 2034, at the Biennale di Venezia, one of world's leading contemporary art and architecture exhibitions.

Rather than conducting a historical account of modern epoch in Turkey, presenting an exhaustive catalogue, or trying to capture its unique local attributes, Places of Memory at this year’s Biennale Architettura in Venice attempts to explore the main theme of the biennial via perceptions and experiences.

According to Murat Tabanlıoğlu, the project idea departs from three areas of Istanbul: The first comprises Taksim, where the curator was born and grew up. Taksim is also an important square, with a constantly changing appearance because of partial and inconsistent interventions. The Atatürk Cultural Center, situated on the narrower end of the square, is a symbol of modern architecture in Turkey. Murat’s father, Hayati Tabanlıoğlu, was the architect. This first area spreads out across a wider zone, and continues downhill from the square to the coast, passes along the warehouses designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem, an important representative of 20th century architecture in Turkey, reaching Salıpazarı harbor. Like many other areas in Istanbul, this area, too, is undergoing transformation. The GalataPort project (a master plan proposal, 2001) developed by Tabanlıoğlu Architects for the area, and the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, which they transformed from a warehouse into a museum (2004), were among projects that triggered change in this area. The second area is Bâb-ı Âli, where Tabanlıoğlu spent his youth. Starting in Sirkeci, the area used to host the headquarters of important newspapers and printing houses in Turkey along two sides of the Cağaloğlu slope, he used to pass through this world every day since he studied in a high school in the same area. The final one is Büyükdere Boulevard and its environs. This area, once lined with fields and orchards, later with light industry buildings, today is in juxtaposition with the CBD, featuring high-rise buildings especially between Levent-Maslak axes that connect main transportation routes of the city.

A detailed discussion of these places that acted as thresholds during different stages of Tabanlıoğlu’s life—or in a sense, his memory—seeded the first layers of the conceptual framework. The focus in the exhibition is not necessarily on these places, but rather on the concept of place itself, incorporated with the subjective vision of every exhibitor in the team. The works interact with each other via different approaches based on different scales and mediums.

ArtInternational Istanbul 2014 will feature 80 galleries from 24 countries. Several East Asian galleries attend the fair for the first time, including Edouard Malingue and Pearl Lam from Hong Kong and Lehmann Maupin who added a Hong Kong location to their New York gallery in 2013. Turkish galleries Dirimart, Galeri Nev, Rodeo and Sanatorium will participate for the first time, joining participants in 2013: NON, Galeri Mana, Pi Artworks, Pilot, Rampa, artSümer, x-ist and Galeri Zilberman.

As part of Manifesta 10, Unlooped—Kino, a film program devised by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher from Office for Art (Berlin), offers a unique survey of time-based media, film, and video, by contemporary artists from the early Seventies until today.

One of the themes of this program is 'New Horizons,' which opens the perspective to the growing relevance of art scenes from the prior peripheries and the use of all technical possibilities of the medium including animation and virtual reality.

Moving Image, founded in 2011, is an art fair dedicated to video art and experimental film. Moving Image Istanbul is the first in a series of new locations for the flagship fairs in New York and London, designed to bring video art to a wider audience and help participating galleries explore emerging markets around the globe. Taking place in the Kuleli Building of the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul, September 25-28, 2014 the fair will run alongside another new high end art fair in town - ArtInternational.

Highlights of the 2014 Istanbul fair include several world premieres, including videos by Şener Özmen (PİLOT Gallery, Istanbul); Jonathan Monaghan (Curator's Office, Washington DC); Shaun Gladwell (Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City); and Nancy Atakan & Volkan Aslan (5533, Istanbul). Single-channel videos at the fair include works by Nino Cais (Central Galeria de Arte, Sao Paulo); Chen Tianzhuo (Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai), and Mounir Fatmi (Galerie Analix Forever, Paris). Among the historical films in the fair are works by David Wojnarowicz (P•P•O•W, New York) and Leslie Thornton (Winkleman Gallery, New York). Several large installations include works by Wolfgang Staehle (Postmasters, New York); Hans Op de Beeck (Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York); Basim Magdy (artSümer, Istanbul); and Sue de Beer (Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York).

4-5.30pm
Artist screening and Q&A
Mari Spirito, Founding Director of Protocinema, and art historian/arts writer Nicole O’Rourke in conversation with emerging artist Atalay Yavuz.
This intimate talk will be accompanied by a screening.
Moving Image Gallerist Lounge
Free and open to the public. Seats are limited.

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